FISHING REPORT 26TH SEPTEMBER 2009

Anglers
Whilst shad are quite hard to find locally, fishing along the Zululand and Transkei coasts is as good as it can get when weather permits. The windy and rainy season has arrived on time and can be very frustrating to anglers. However, when a good window of weather presents itself anglers should take advantage of it especially down in the Transkei where some very good catches of garrick in particular are being reported.

The main areas are the traditional Port St Johns and surrounding points and the Hole In The Wall areas. Quite a few big fish over the 20 kg mark have been reported recently. Anglers targeting kob in these areas at night with Strike Pro type lures are also having a good measure of success with some big fish. Terry Nel from Port Edward reports that although shad have been on the bite, a few of the days this week have not been fished because of the bad weather and sea conditions. On the other days, a number of garrick were taken at Splash Rock here with the usual boring 'live bait' method. Bronze Bream are now starting to eat well at all the favorite spots, Trafalger and Palm Beach.

Further north the Zululand beaches are also providing anglers with fair catches of garrick and kob. Anglers targeting bigger fish in the form of some early season sand sharks have also had some good returns particularly in the Port Durnford area. Locally there are still some garrick around with the odd kob coming out at night but anglers who are now targeting busher and pompano have had the odd fish in the Doonside and Twini areas. Shad for all it’s worth seem to have disappeared and catches of traditional venues are very sketchy. The only place where reasonable catches are being reports are from the Durban beachfront piers and the Umgeni stretch.

St Lucia being the hot spot along the Zululand coast at the moment, with the abundance of shad in the area which has bought along with it plenty of game fish, in the form of mainly garrick and the odd giant kingfish. An unconfirmed report came through of a good size giant kingfish of 38 kilo’s a few days ago. Anglers are reminded that the legal size for a garrick is 70cm and the bag limit per day is two. Also the shad season closes at the end of this month being the 30th September and reopens on the 1st December. “Giant Kingfish of 20 kg takes top honours”  Barry Tedder from the Zululand Shore Angling Association reports  on the past weekends postal competition, the second on the Zululand shore angling calender to date. With the weather conditions leading into the weekend playing havoc with the various club decision makers as to when and where to fish.

Strong South Westerly winds bought along with it 3 to 3.5 meter swells forcing most of the clubs to fish in the later part of the weekend where conditions looked more favourable. Some clubs opting to run down to the Port St Johns area in the Transkei, targeting a few bonus fish and hoping for a break away result. The current team trophy standings are still pretty close being early days with no run away results recorded to date. A total of 84 anglers turned out in support of their various clubs with the following results.

Tugela A took top honours on 117.5 weight points who fished the middle north coast followed by St Lucia A on 104.2 and St Lucia B on 73.6 B in second and third spot respectively, fishing the St Lucia to Vidal area. Top junior went to Brendon Andrews of St Lucia club on 33,5 pts, Top lady angler went to Nicky Pereira of Mtunzini club on 17.8 pts and top master went to Julian Pybus of Tugela club on 52.0 pts. Top senior angler went to Dhanesh Sew of Umzingazi club on 50.7 pts, including in his catch an outstanding giant kingfish of 20.7 kgs also being the heaviest edible for the weekend, the fish was measured and returned live into the water. The heaviest inedible was a dusky shark of 34.3 kg caught by Etienne Gerber of Mtunzini club.

The next competition being a common venue competition is scheduled for the 10/11th October and other up coming events is the Zululand ladies sponsored golf day to be held on the 24th October at the Empangeni country club. The Zululand seniors sponsored golf day will be on the 31st October at the Richards Bay country club.

TOP 10 ANGLERS FOR THE LAST ROUND
1.  Julian Pybus - 52.0 pts .
2.  Dhanesh Sew - 50.7 pts
3.  Barry Tedder - 34.7 pts
4.  Etienne Gerber - 34.3 pts
5.  Brendon Andrews (Jnr) - 33.5 pts
6. Justin Carroll - 26.0 pts
7.  Neels Visagie - 23.9 pts
8.  Bollie Crous - 23.8 pts
9.  Donovin King - 21.6 pts
10. Jeff le Roux - 20.3 pts. 
 
TOP 10 TEAMS
  1.   Tugela A - 117.5 pts (13 fish)
  2.   St Lucia A - 104.2 pts (44 fish)
  3.   St Lucia B - 73.6 pts (29 fish)
  4.   Kwambo A - 66 pts (19 fish)
  5.   Umzingazi B - 55.5 pts (6 fish)
  6.  Mtunzini B - 52.1 pts (5 fish)
  7.  Umzingazi A - 50.7 pts (27 fish)
  8.  Mtunzini A - 37.9 pts (6 fish)
  9.  Richards Bay A - 34.3 pts (10 fish)
 10. Richards Bay B - 19.3 pts (12 fish)

 Thanks very much Barry for supplying the info

Adrenaline Pumping Springer Fishing Action in Durban Harbour
Mike Laubscher from Nikao Fishing Adventures sent in this report.
“Adrenaline Pumping Springer Fishing Action in Durban Harbour”. Nikao Fishing Adventures took 2 clients out to Durban Harbour to target some King Fish (Jacks) and Springer (10 Pounder, Lady Fish) on Drop Shot on Saturday afternoon and early evening on light tackle. We launched at 12h00 and fished till 19h00, it was a bright warm sunny day with clear skies and a stiff breeze, in the late afternoon the wind died down and we had a superb evening. The water surface temperature was 21 deg C.

We started out on the low tide and threw some drop shot at the sand banks retrieving into the deeper water and were rewarded with 3 Sand Gurnards (Flat Heads) and 2 Needle Scaled Queen Fish (Salad Fish). Tried as we did we were not able to find any King Fish (Jacks), but I did get 2 good hits on a top water lure, but no hook ups. The tide was due to turn at around 16h00 and I started moving around looking for the tell tale swirls of Springer (10 Pounder, Lady Fish) and at around 17h00 I found them in water 10m deep.

We were rigged up on light tackle using 6’6” Medium Light Rods on 2000 size Spinning Reels rigged with 10lb braid. I moved towards them quietly on the sneaker and then let the wind drift us towards them and we began to cast. It was not very long when we started getting chases and eventually one of my clients got the 1st fish on, the reel began to scream, but when the fish jumped the braid parted and I can only think it was due to a tight wind knot. I tied on a new leader and we were back in business. I then hooked up into one and again he was lost on the jump, he had thrown the hook. We repositioned the boat again and the one client hooked up into a reel screamer and around 15 minutes and about 6 or 7 runs later landed a superb specimen of just under 4.68Kg’s (10 1/4lbs).

I tied a new leader for him and repositioned the boat again and then the other client went tight and was hooked into a really nice fish which gave us some super acrobatic displays, a lot of deep runs a 3 times around the boat, after 15 minutes or so he managed to land a splendid Springer of around 4.56Kg’s (10lbs). Again I retied the leader and repositioned the boat and the Springer decided it was my turn again and after several runs and acrobatics and 20minutes later I managed to land a much larger fish than the 1st two of an undisclosed weight.  All the fish we caught were released safely back to the water after a recovery period. Please see the Springer Video on U Tube of that night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXUeEL56UGM

Bass Fishing amongst the Algae at Inanda Dam.
Nikao Fishing Adventures took a client from the UK out to Inanda Dam on Sunday for a day of Large Mouth Bass Fishing. We launched at 06h30 and fished to 14h30. There were a lot of boats out on the water. In the morning it was quite chilly and fresh with no wind. We both had jersey on. Later on it got very hot and a stiff breeze picked up. Water surface temperature started at 18.4 deg C and ended at 19.4 deg C. We started by the cliffs and were greeted by 2 ducks making it, after the show the client managed to land our first fish of just over 1Kg (+/-2 ¼ lbs) on a weightless fluke. We tried the edges for a while longer but nothing. Then we went to Cactus Point where the water was crystal clear and fished on drop shot where we got 3 fish, 1 of fish of around 1Kg (+/-2 ¼ lbs) another rat that was less than keeper size and the best fish for the day of 2.04Kg (+/- 4 1/5lbs) all on watermelon chartreuse finesse worms. The bite then went quiet and we struggled for fish and I even looked at the S Bends but had no luck. As we had started to go from Cactus Point towards the S Bends I had noticed a huge amount of algae spores in the water, and when we got nothing at the S Bends I remembered from last year that all this algae would collect somewhere and the fish would hide under this, and I found this thick algae at the cliffs opposite the S Bends and we managed to get 4 more fish all around 1.1-1.2Kg (+/- 2 ½ lbs) on weightless flukes. 9 fish for the day, we wanted 10 but just could not get another one before it was time to leave. If this was a competition we would have had a 5 fish bag of around 6.7Kg’s (14 ¾ lbs), so overall it was a good day.”

Ski boats
Ski boats are still having a great season as far as bottom fishing is concerned as there are plenty of daga and geelbek salmon coming out on both north and south coasts. Amongst these fish a few big albacore have also been accounted for recently. Black muscle cracker, rock cod and good size’ reds’ generally make up ski boaters bags.
The Kingfisher’s “Biggest Shad Competition” is in full swing. The heaviest  shad  for the month of September will receive a 14’ Kingfisher Poseidon 5pc Graphite Rod, valued at R1, 925.00, the second heaviest shad will receive a Daiwa SL 50SHK Reel, valued at R1,189.00 and third heaviest shad will receive a Daiwa Opus Plus 6000 Reel valued at R567.00. Please note that all shad (fresh) must be weighed at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street, Durban during trading hours and please remember there is a bag limit of four and the minimum size is 30cm.
So far, first place is a shad of 4.776kg’s caught at Orange Rocks by Raveen Ranjuam. Second place is a shad of 4.036kg’s caught a Beechwood by Steve Roulon and third place is a shad of 3.634kg’s caught at Richards Bay by Bishawanath Samraj (Suresh)

ESA Saltwater
Catch the ESA team doing battle on ESA Saltwater at 7:30pm on Thursday and don’t miss the bass show at 7:00pm every Tuesday on Super sport 1 (unless mentioned otherwise – check your DSTV guide for details). The latest ESA magazine is out and on sale at The Kingfisher for R19.95. This issue it is jammed packed with great features.

3rd annual bass classic
Mnini dam, located within 15 kms of Amanzimtoti is hosting its 3rd annual bass classic over the weekend of 3rd and 4th October 2009. Thousands of rands are available for the biggest bass and the heaviest bags of 5 bass on both days. Lucky draw prizes will also be handed out on the presentation day, the 4th October. Entry fee is R150 per angler and covers both days. For more info contact Ron on 0833007528.

Fly fishing competition
The Matatiele Mountain Lake is hosting their fly fishing competition on 31st October and the 1st November 2009.  First prize for a tagged fish is R10, 000.00, 2nd R5, 000.00, 3rd R2, 500.00, 4th R1, 500.00 and 5th R1, 00.00. There are many more prizes to be won. Entry fee is R350.00 and this includes your entry, Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. There is a cash bar and camping facilities with ablution blocks available. For registration and bookings please contact either Shane on 083 299 4996, Lionel on 039 7373170 or Dale on 082 331 7262. This is always a very well run competition and is certainly worth while making the trip up the hill. Some info supplied by Dale that will hopefully wet your apppetite. “With all that out of the way, we hope to see you fishing here this year.

The fishing has been the best that I have ever seen, we had a 5.3kg brown trout caught 3 months ago and personally I caught a 4kg rainbow last week-end, with the average catch of fish ranging between 2.5 to 3kgs. We have also just recently stocked with browns and rainbows. The lake is clean and cold and an absolute pleasure to fish in at the moment.”

Kingfisher’s trading hours
The Kingfisher’s trading hours are Monday, Wednesday to Friday 8:00 to 17:00, Tuesday 8:30 to 17:00 and Saturday 8:00 to 13:00.
Shane from Freedivers is holding a clinic on diving (spear fishing and cray fishing) at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street Durban on the 25 October 2009. This clinic is free and like all of the clinics, booking is a must.